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I kiss her hair and hold her until she stops shaking.
“How is he?”
She shakes her head. “No change. The doctors are doing tests to see if there is any brain activity, but they aren’t very hopeful.”
My gut churns, but I force myself to go into the hospital room where Gabriel is hooked up to dozens of machines. He’s always been bigger than life. Even when he got his cancer diagnosis, he seemed invincible. Now, I barely recognize my big brother.
My father arrives a moment later and puts a hand on my shoulder.
“What do we know?” I ask, my voice gruff with emotion.
He shakes his head grimly. “Not enough. Our men took out one of theirs. We’re working to identify him through our connections at the coroner’s office.”
“I’ve got someone looking through nearby CCTV footage. It looks like Bellamy was the target from what we’ve seen so far.”
“Who is helping you with that?”
I shake my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m handling it.”
My father doesn’t give up control easily, but he’s smart enough to recognize that we need all the help we can get, so he doesn’t question me about it again.
“The wedding needs to happen soon. We can have a small ceremony with the heads of the family and a few other guests. It could be arranged for tomorrow in the hospital chapel. That will remind people of the gravity of this situation.”
“Fuck, pops. The wedding is not important right now. We need to figure out what happened first, but Gabriel should be your top priority. Let me worry about hunting these bastards down, and then we can talk about the wedding.”
“He was dying anyway, Tobias. We need to let him go and focus on what we can change. And the wedding is vital.”
I want to punch him. At the same time, I recognize the logic in the callous statement.
“Still, tomorrow is too soon to convince Bellamy to still go through with this.”
My father’s brows draw together. “You think she wants to back out?”
I vacillate between anger that he’s more concerned about the wedding than his own son, and incredulity at his asinine question.
“She just got shot at. Presumably for trying to marry me. Yeah, there’s a chance she wants to back out. Just give me time. I’ve got her in a safe place.”
“Update her father. He’s probably frantic.”
Fuck. I didn’t even think about her family. Of course, Julian would want to know where his daughter is.
“I’ll call him.”
A nurse sticks her head in the door.
“I’m afraid you’ll need to wait outside so we can get him ready to go in for another scan.”
I press a kiss to Gabe’s forehead and follow my father into the hall. He holds up his phone, and we go in separate directions.
When I find a quiet waiting room, my first call is to Owen.
“Let Bellamy call her father,” I say when he answers on the first ring.
“Hello to you too.”
I growl and Owen has the decency to cut the bullshit and turn serious. “How’s Gabe?”
“Doctors are running tests and there’s no update. Give Bellamy your phone and let her call Julian. He’s frantic trying to find her.”
